Justin Timberlake is bringing MySpace back.
Yes, you heard correctly. The former *NSync star now holds a majority stake in the company, which News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWSA) recently sold for $35 million — quite a discount from the $580 million Rupert Murdoch & Co. paid for it around seven years ago.
But it’s hardly surprising that the value has dwindled, considering the online fad essentially fell off the face of the earth (or so I thought; apparently it’s still the 43rd-most-visited site on the web right now).
What is surprising is that MySpace (and J. Timb) recently announced the site is being “rebuilt from scratch” and will soon re-launch as an entertainment-focused community.
When I first heard the news, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. The days of rearranging my top friends faded quickly as soon as I grew up and moved onto bigger and better things — like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), of course.
Then I took a look at the promo video and … well, the site actually seems pretty cool. The design is sleek and looks a lot like Pinterest — except with music! And playlists! And videos!
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized: Do I really need (or want) another social media site? Or even another music site? Probably not.
We already can connect with people through Facebook or Pinterest or Twitter or Instagram or Tumblr or LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) or countless other platforms.
Even Facebook has Spotify for the music side of things.
Or you can just follow and tweet at your favorite artists on Twitter.
Or you can re-pin cool pictures of them on Pinterest.
Plus, we have Pandora (NYSE:P) and Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes and Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) and Grooveshark and so many other ways to listen and find music.
To put it bluntly: Timberlake & Co. are entering into one crowded, competitive market. And even if the revamped look can shake its outdated reputation, Facebook, for one, has shown us that getting users is one thing — and monetizing them is another.
Still, Justin Timberlake reinvented himself since the fad of boy bands faded. Maybe his darling site will make a similar comeback.
As of this writing, Alyssa Oursler did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
